Winners and Losers at the Republican Convention (A Guide to Lists)

So who were the winners and losers at the Republican Convention in Tampa? There are many lists in the new and old media, but one of the best is via The Week, which starts its list this way:

On Thursday night, the 2012 Republican National Convention wrapped up as Mitt Romney formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination. It was an eventful week that got off to a bumpy start when fears that Hurricane Isaac might slam into Tampa on the gathering’s first day forced the GOP to cancel the opening events, condensing the program from four days to three. But the storm largely spared Florida, and the week was filled with stirring speeches and more than a little controversy. Whose fortunes rose during the GOP’s big gathering, and whose star dimmed? Here, a brief guide to the convention’s winners and losers:

UPDATE: File this in your Alternate Universe file. If you’ve read ANY of the lists above, watched the video of Ann Romney’s face when Clint Eastwood delivered his immortal talk at the Republican convention, read many new and old media conservative pundits, you know that Eastwood’s appearance as the convention bigwigs let it happen was not a wise or helpful idea in terms of imagery, let alone what it did to pushing the excellent Romney documentary off of the vital 10 pm broadcast time.

But apparently all those perspectives are missing it.

One Republican commentator argues Eastwood was a stroke of genius for the Romney campaign, and an uttertriumph — in more ways than one. I read it three times because I SERIOUSLY thought it was a joke, but it isn’t. Read it HERE, No. Really. This is not a page from The Onion.
NOTE TO REPUBLICANS: If you want to win over independent voters you need to run away from analysis like this as quickly as possile and never use this as spin because you will lose a huge chunk of independent voters who will agree with the 98 percent of other analysts (including most Republicans) who think Clint Eastwood is an excellent artist, an excellent actor, has led an admirable life and is a good person but who essentially flopped in terms of imagery and message on the convention stage that night. (Maybe I’m wrong and this column IS a delayed April fool’s joke.)
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